THE French had it right. Matt "The Menace" Scott has a ring to it, the kind of tag that might just stick, particularly if he keeps playing the way he did in Agen, who had started it all by applying the label in their matchday programme.
It he was embarrassed by it, he made a good job of hiding any suggestion of a red face, revelling in the glory of the kind of performance that could cement his Scotland place if he can keep up that standard of play in both attack and defence. "Let's hope it sticks," he joked.
It was, he acknowledged, the forwards who had done most to win the game. "They laid the platform, but we did manage to get a wee bit of ball out in the back line, even though the conditions were a bit Edinburgh-esque, which we weren't expecting," he said. "We had trained in the wind and rain all week and had played in it last week, which probably helped us. The scrum was excellent and we got some good line out ball, that was the basis for victory in these conditions."
There was still room for individual brilliance, and that is where Scott really showed his menace. Leading only 13-0 after a first half playing with a strong wind behind them, even Alan Solomons, the head coach, admitted it was not sure if it was enough when they turned to face the elements.
He need not have worried, taking the ball on a perfect line, Scott cut the defence wide open before feeding Cornell du Preez for the try that settled Scottish nerves. Later, Matt the Menace nearly trumped even that spectacular effort with a solo break from his own half that left his teammates needing only to get the ball out to a queue of at least four waiting to run in unopposed, only for a knock-on at the base of the ruck to end the chance.
"The first was a pre-plan move, I got the ball behind a block runner and Cornell [du Preez] ran a really good line and managed to barge over the line," was Scott's version. "That was good. The second one, I saw a gap and went for it. Unfortunately I could not quite finish it; I'm not sure what happened then. It is nice to be in those positions to make breaks and at least we are putting ourselves in positions to score tries. I was happy with my carrying all through the game and had to make a few tackles as well.
"I am just trying to play as well as I can. This year, for the national team it is wide open who is going to start in the midfield. You have four or five guys who you could put forward a good case for starting in the Six Nations so I am just trying to play well enough for Edinburgh just to get into the squad. I am not getting ahead of myself at all, I am going to come up against bigger and tougher teams and have to keep improving."
The World Cup has helped, and with the Edinburgh forwards in the form they are enjoying at the moment, it is an ideal time for Scott to shine. "The pack the last two weeks have been tremendous," he said. "John [Hardie] has been a really good addition to us, he adds a bit of grunt in the back row, he is making big tackle. We have a really strong squad now.
"We were using last week to get a bit of a bounce because we were in a trough in the league after losing three on the trot. We got what we came for, a win and a bit of momentum. but it is still a must-win game next week; these two [Challenge Cup] wins will mean nothing if we can't win in the league, we really need to get back up that table."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here